Alba Berlin has continued its negative run in the basketball Euroleague and conceded the eighth defeat in a row. The German champions lost at home in front of 8,916 spectators to favorites FC Barcelona, despite a big fight, by a narrow margin of 86:88 (46:45).
Alba is thus still stuck in the table cellar festival. The best Berlin throwers were Tamir Blatt with 17 points and Jaleen Smith with 15 points.
The game started off very evenly, up to the point of 10:10 no team could break away. Then Alba made a few mistakes and the Catalan star ensemble around superstar Nikola Mirotic turned up the heat. Almost every throw was a hit. Alba was already two digits behind after the first quarter (19:30).
In the second period, the hosts woke up, they accepted the fight, defended much more intensively and made it much more difficult for Barcelona. Point by point they came back. Shortly before the change of sides, Christ Koumadje brought his team back into the lead after a long time (41:39).
After the change of sides, Alba allowed himself too many ball losses again. The hosts also had bad luck with several referee decisions to their disadvantage. So the deficit became double digits again. However, the Berliners fought back again and closed the gap again with 18 seconds to go (84:85). National player Johannes Thiemann then missed the possible extra time five seconds before the end when he was only able to convert two of his three free throws.